


Study Sessions

by goldkirk



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, College, College AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 01:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldkirk/pseuds/goldkirk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren you overdramatic marshmallow. (Also, Armin and Mina meet and fall in nerd love.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study Sessions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClosetTherapist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClosetTherapist/gifts).



Eren and Mina had met the second week of college when both of them transferred into the Psych 1 class from different courses. Since they were the only transfers, they had no choice but to team up in the library in a joint effort to cover the material they'd missed the previous week. Mina had at least come from a different Psych 1 class; though the proffessor was terrible and she hadn't learned much, she did at least understand a few basic things. Eren, however, had transferred from an anthropology course and had no clue what was going on. Eren told her he would have asked his roommate (and longtime childhood friend) Armin to help—apparently Armin was some kind of genius, knew everything about everything—but Armin was snowed under with his own schoolwork and had taken to holing himself up in their room with his textbooks. Mina said that even if he didn't have Armin this time he'd still be fine. They were determined to master the information they needed or die trying. Between the two of them, and with the help of a near-deadly amount of junk food, caffiene, and ink fumes, they managed to pass the class' first test the week after they joined.

After their supersonic catch-up mission, Eren and Mina remained study partners. Eren was funny and easygoing (if highly opinionated), and Mina was friendly and energetic. It was easy for them to be around each other, and they ended up meeting for lunches, coffee breaks, and this one super-intense 3 AM game of glow-in-the-dark paintball. But they each had others that they hung out with, and their circles of friends didn't seem to intersect. The Mina/Eren interactions remained pretty normal until one night when Eren got desperate enough to ask her for help.

Mina jerked in surprise, nearly dropping her book when her phone buzzed on the bed next to her. She'd forgotten it was there, as she'd spent the last two hours buried in the world of Harry Potter and eating some stale popcorn she'd brought home after break in one of those tacky Christmas tins. She unlocked the phone, surprised to see a text from Eren. Normally he only texted if he wanted to meet up for coffee, and she doubted he'd be asking about that this late at night. When she opened the text, it was only one word.

_MINA_

She snorted. Really explanitory, Eren. As she held it, the phone buzzed a few more times with more messages.

_MINA HELP HE WON'T STOP STUDYING_

_I JUST WANT TO SLEEP BUT HIS UNCOMPROMISING WORK ETHIC IS KEEPING ME AWAKE WITH GUILT_

_I CAN'T MAKE HIM STOPPPPPPPP_

Now Mina was actually laughing. Her fingers quickly tapped out a reply as she stood up.

_Calm down you overdramatic marshmallow. I'll be there in ten._

__(You have to get the RA to let me in, don't forget. I don't want to be standing out in the freezing air for twenty minutes.)_ _

 

* * *

 

"There he is," Eren said, throwing the door to his room open dramatically. "Do what you can. Anything. Please."

Armin didn't even look up from his desk as Mina came in. Mina figured that years of being Eren's best friend would desensitize you to all kinds of things. She walked over, surveying the hunched-over blonde who...had sparkly barrettes in his hair? Mina raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at Eren.

"Eren," she said with amazing calm, "why does your roommate have sparkly hair clips put—very sloppily, I might add—haphazardly in his hair? And," she glanced again, "marker on his neck?"

"Once he gets focused he can't be distracted by anything. I was bored and it wasn't bothering him."

"Eren!"

"What?!"

Mina snorted. "Never mind." She tapped Armin politely on the shoulder, but he didn't react. Eren rolled his eyes.

"You're going to have to be brutal. Like I said, he won't notice anything when he's focused on studying or something. Try having to be the one to make him take a break for dinner or something."

Mina promptly whacked Armin on the back of the head. "Still nothing," she said, sounding mildly impressed. "I'm beginning to see your problem here. Does he even know it's nighttime?"

"I'm not sure if he even knows what day it is, except in terms of when his assignments are due or when he has to be somewhere for a class or meeting. He's even worse than usual right now. I think he's trying to binge-study for an exam in bio-molecule-schnizzlefuzzit-something-or-other-ology."

"That's not even a thing."

Eren waved a hand in dismissal. "Whatever. The point is that it's going to take something drastic to snap him out of it at this point. Something big."

"How drastic?" Mina said, staring at Armin with increasing determination. Eren was beginning to get a bit unnerved by the look on her face.

"A bucket of cold water, or gatorated—wait, that would ruin his stuff. He'd kill us. Um, furniture removal, maybe a foghorn?"

"Hmm," Mina almost growled. She had a devious looking grin on her face.

"Mina?" Eren said. "You look like you're up to something and that's slightly creepy because you're like Armin and you never get all...sneaky. I think you've been hanging around me too much. It's not a good—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Mina bent over and kissed Armin's cheek with gusto.

She stood up straight again as Armin froze, red blush taking over his cheeks. He straightened up in his chair and finally turned to look at them, mouth slightly open in surprise. 

"Did—did someone—did you just—" he stuttered. 

Mina started to blush as well. "Um," she said intelligently. "I—uh—"

"Armin, this is Mina, Mina, this is Armin. You just kissed him." Eren paused for a second staring at the wall. "She just—she just kissed you. SHE JUST—" Armin slapped a hand over Eren's mouth.

"Yes, Eren, I noticed," Armin said, with the long-suffering patience of someone who had known Eren for far too long. He looked at Mina, who was pink-cheeked but looking a bit feisty.

"So..." he said, rubbing the back of his hair. To Mina's surprise, he merely looked resigned to find it tangled up with clips. Apparently it was not a new occurrence for him.

"Eren couldn't get you to stop studying," Mina blurted. "He asked me to help."

"And you—okay. Okay." Armin rubbed his cheek absentmindedly. "Yeah. Hm."

"Is that...okay? I kind of didn't think it through."

"Um," Armin said. "I never—no one ever kissed me before."

"It wasn't on the lips," Mina said. "It was kind of like a half-kiss. A kind of kiss. A...I'm not helping, am I?" 

"I mean, no one ever kissed me before," Armin started again. "I kind of liked it though."

"You did? I mean, good! I mean,  _ugh,_ I mean that that's good, I'm glad you liked it..."

"So you're Mina? You study with Eren, right?"

"Yeah. We're in Psychology together." She brushed her hair behind her ears a few times. It wouldn't stay put; there was just too much of it, falling down around her shoulders. "So, um, if you don't mind me asking, what were you studying tonight? I've never seen those math problems before."

"WHAT?" Eren yelped. "Mina, no...now you've set him off..." Eren put a hand over his face as he saw Armin's face light up.

"Do you really want to know? It's super interesting!" Armin exclaimed. "But...I mean, most people don't like math. I don't want to bore you."

"Yeah, I want to know!" Mina said, smiling. "I try to keep it quiet, but I'm actually a closet nerd myself. I love everything almost. I love math and English and astronomy and everything. All of it. Believe me, I'll "

Armin was looking at her with something kind of like amazement and a bit like the hunger of a starving man. "Oh my gosh, no one ever gets it when I say that!" he practically squeaked. 

"I KNOW!"

"They always go, 'How can you like x AND y? AND z? You can't like them _all_ ' and I'm just like YES YOU CAN. But I thought it was just me—"

"NO IT'S NOT, I GET IT—"

"OH MY GOSH—"

"THIS IS SO COOL WHAT ARE YOU STUDYING I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING—"

"Oh  _no,"_ Eren moaned, forgotten on the side. "This is even worse. This is very, very bad."

Three hours later, Eren was curled up in his bed with two pillows clutched over his head, and Mina and Armin were sprawled over the rug on the floor, still excitedly debating something about Socratic methods and Boolean logic gates. 

"This is amazing," Mina said, flopping on her back. 

"Agreed. I wish this had happened sooner." Armin shoved some notebooks out of the way and laid down next to her.

"What, the kissing or the talking?"

"Both?" Armin said tentatively.

"Yeah," Mina said. "I kind of liked both too."

"Maybe next time though, it can be my turn."

"Okay," Mina said. "Except maybe we can both be doing the kissing on purpose. And possibly there could be gummi worms."

"The sour ones."

"Deal." Mina started humming. Then she bolted up. " _Shoot."_

"What?" Armin asked, scrambling up after her. Mina was grabbing her coat. 

"It's way too late! I'm not supposed to be here. I'm going to get in so much trouble—"

"Climb out the window. We're on the first floor. You can get in your building, right? You have your card?" Armin was shoving her over to the window.

"Yeah but—you're okay with me going out the window? You can  _get_ out these windows? Ours are blocked."

"Eren does it all the time to prank Jean down the hall. It's fine. We just have to be careful. Keep low when you sneak cross the side, and then you'll be fine. The RA is in the corner room, so be quiet over there." He helped her over the window sill.

"Thanks, Armin!" She laughed, trying to keep it quiet. "This was awesome."

"Yeah! Let's do it again when its actually normal human hours," he said. She waved and then was gone, creeping off along the line of bushes by the building. Armin stared after her shadow for a mintue before closing the window and dropping into his bed. He covered his face and laughed quietly.

"Nice to see you finally found a friend," Eren mumbled from the bunk above him.

"Shut up, Eren."

"If you're gonna make a habit of that, I'm requesting a transfer."

"You've got Mikasa and me, and you can't room with Mikasa. You don't even have any friends."

"I do too! At least I don't have my girlfriend over at ungodly hours keeping my poor roommate up with study-guilt and irritating nerding out—"

"We just met tonight!"

"You  _love_ her."

 _"Shut up Eren."_ Armin kicked the mattress above him. He could hear Eren's muffled laughter as he rolled over and pulled the blankets up.

Armin let it go. There would be plenty of time to get back at him tomorrow, especially with Mina to help. His plans were always better with two.

 


End file.
